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He throws his cap into a bonfire of foreign cloth and helps smash the windowpanes of his own Albert Mission School. The next day the headmaster canes him, and he storms out and leaves the school for good, ending up at the Board High School, all without understanding the politics that set it off.
Swami is the star bowler of the M.C.C., the boys' cricket club. He misses the match entirely, and his friend Rajam, the club's founder, cuts him off. Rajam then moves away with his family, and Swami's parting gift at the station goes unacknowledged.
Colonial politics, religious insult and institutional authority are shown only as they register for a child: an English cap to burn, a teacher to resent, a headmaster to avoid. Because Swami lacks the adult framework, he acts on raw loyalty, fear and crowd excitement. This exposes how much mass participation in public events runs on the same mechanisms among adults, who simply have better justifications.
When Rajam arrives, a police superintendent's son with English manners and expensive toys, the boys' friendships reorganize around his status. Swami is torn between his old loyalty to Mani and his wish for Rajam's approval. Rajam's favor becomes the currency that sets rank inside the group. Friendships among the powerless are brokered through proximity to whoever carries borrowed adult power, which makes them intense but fragile once that person withdraws.